Collection: Museum of East Asian Art

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Decorative and Applied Art Collection

  This is a large and wide ranging collection of East Asian art of major significance. It comprises: Chinese art; Korean, Thai, and Annamese ceramics; and Ordos bronzes and gilt bronzes from Inner Mongolia. The categories of Chinese art cover ceramics with a substantial collection representing almost all periods and types of bronzes, and metalwork of all kinds, gold, silver, cloisonne and enamels; lacquers, bamboo carvings, rhinos horn carvings, woods and natural wood sculptures, and miscellaneous decorative arts such as moulded gourds and toggles. There is a substantial collection of Chinese jades from neolithic times to the 19th century. There are artefacts relevant to an 18th century Chinese scholar’s studio, believed to be the only one of its kind in the UK. Japanese art includes ceramics, lacquers, netsuke, tsuba, and inro, and Tibetan art, chiefly gilt bronzes or gilt copper monk portrait figures and two examples of Derge work and a wooden vajra. There is also Buddhist sculpture. Particularly notable are the museum’s Ordos material, which is extensive; and its bamboo carvings, which, though few in number, are some of the finest of this category anywhere in the world. This collection is both the core collection of the museum and its main strength. It is an extremely important collection and in some aspects hold collections unrivalled elsewhere in a British museum. The collections are described as a strength and include archaeological, fine art, costume and arms and armour under this single heading.

  Subjects

  Ceramics; Metalwork; Jewellery; Sculpture; Furniture; Paintings; Decorative and Applied Arts; Glass; Fine Art; Prints; Drawings

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC